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and the 


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WE MAY BE EITHER THE SUFFER¬ 
ING SLAVES OF NATURE OR THE 
HAPPY MASTERS OF HER LAWS. 











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Copyright N° 


COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 








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SELF 

DEVELOPMENT 

AND THE 

WAY TO POWER 


By L. W. ROGERS 


Author of “ Hints To Young Students of Occultism,” 
“ The Occultism in the Shakespeare Plays,” etc. 


NEW YORK, N. Y. 

THE THEOSOPHICAL BOOK COMPANY, 
1910. 






COPYBIGHT 1910 
BY 

L. W. ROGERS 


* 


©CI.A259559 




We may be either the suffering slaves of nature 
the happy masters of her laws. 











SELF DEVELOPMENT 

AND THE WAY TO POWER 


It is the natural right of every human being to 
be happy — to escape all the miseries of life. 
Happiness is the normal condition, as natural as 
the landscapes and the seasons. It is unnatural 
to suffer and it is only because of our ignorance 
that we do suffer. Happiness is the product of 
wisdom. To attain perfect wisdom, to compre¬ 
hend fully the purpose of life, to realize com¬ 
pletely the relationship of human beings to each 
other, is to put an end to all suffering, to escape 
every ill and evil that afflicts us. Perfect wisdom 
is unshadowed joy. 

Why do we suffer in life? Because in the 
scheme of nature we are being forced forward in 
evolution and we lack the spiritual illumination 
that alone can light the way and enable us to 
move safely among the obstacles that lie before 
us. For the most part we do not even see or sus¬ 
pect the presence of trouble until it suddenly leaps 
upon us like a concealed tiger. One day our 
family circle is complete and happy. A week 



6 


The Thing We Lack. 


later death has come and gone and joy is replaced 
with agony. To day we have a friend. To mor¬ 
row he will be an enemy and we do not know 
why. A little while ago we had wealth and all 
material luxuries. There was a sudden change 
and now we have only poverty and misery and 
yet we seek in vain for a reason why this should 
be. There was a time when we had health and 
strength; but they have both departed and no 
trace of a reason appears. Aside from these 
greater tragedies of life innumerable things of 
lesser consequence continually bring to us little 
miseries and minor heartaches. We most earn¬ 
estly desire to avoid them but we never see them 
until they strike us, until in the darkness of our 
ignorance we blunder upon them. The thing we 
lack is the spiritual illumination that will enable 
us to look far and wide, finding the hidden causes 
of human suffering and revealing the method by 
which they may be avoided; and if we can but 
reach illumination the evolutionary journey can 
be made both comfortably and swiftly. It is as 
though we must pass through a long, dark room 
filled with furniture promiscuously scattered 
about. In the darkness our progress would be 
slow and our painful bruises many. But if we 
could press a button that would turn on the elec¬ 
tric light we could then make the same journey 


The Way to Illumination. 7 

quickly and with perfect safety and comfort. 

The old method of education was to store the 
mind with as many facts, or supposed facts, as 
could be accumulated and to give a certain 
exterior polish to the personality. The theory 
was that when a man was born he was a com¬ 
pleted human being and that all that could be 
done for him was to load him up with informa¬ 
tion which would be used with more or less skill, 
according to the native ability he happened to be 
born with. The theosophical idea is that the phy¬ 
sical man, and all that constitutes his life in the 
physical world, is but a very partial expression 
of the self; that in the ego of each there is prac¬ 
tically unlimited power and wisdom; that these 
may be brought through into expression in the 
physical world as the physical body and its invisi¬ 
ble counterparts, which together constitute the 
complex vehicle of the ego’s manifestation, are 
evolved and adapted to the purpose; and that in 
exact proportion that conscious effort is given to 
such self-development will spiritual illumination 
be achieved and wisdom attained. Thus the 
light that leads to happiness is kindled from 
within and the evolutionary journey that all are 
making may be robbed of its suffering. 

Why does death bring misery? Chiefly be¬ 
cause it separates us from those we love. But 


8 


Why We Suffer. 


when we have evolved the factulty of clairvoy¬ 
ance, in our work of self-development, the separa¬ 
tion vanishes and our “dead” friends are as much 
with us as the living. The only other reason 
why death brings grief or fear is because we do 
not understand it and comprehend the part it 
plays in human evolution. But the moment our 
ignorance gives way to comprehension such fear 
vanishes and a serene happiness takes its place. 

Why do we have enemies from whose words or 
acts we suffer? Because in our limited physical 
consciousness we do not perceive the unity of all 
life and realize that our wrong thinking and 
doing must react upon us through other people— 
a situation from which there is no possible 
escape except through ceasing to think evil and 
then patiently awaiting the time when the causes 
we have already generated are fully exhausted. 
When spiritual illumination comes, and we no 
longer stumble in the night of ignorance, the last 
enemy will disappear and we shall make no more 
forever. 

Why do we suffer from poverty and disease? 
Only because of our blundering ignorance that 
makes their existence possible for us, and because 
we do not comprehend their meaning and their 
lessons, nor know the attitude to assume toward 
them. Had we but the wisdom to understand 


Why Suffering Ceases. 


9 


why they come to people, why they are necessary 
factors in their evolution, they would trouble us 
no longer. When nature’s lesson is fully learned 
these mute teachers will vanish. 

And so it is with all forms of suffering we 
experience. They are at once reactions from 
our ignorant blunderings and instructors that 
point out the better way. When we have com¬ 
prehended the lessons they teach they are nG 
longer necessary and disappear. 

Thus our evolution is going forward and has 
gone forward in the past. We know that the 
human race has passed through a long evolution 
during which it has acquired five senses by which 
knowledge is gained. Nobody who has given 
thought to the subject will make the mistake of 
supposing that this evolution is completed and 
that the five senses are all we shall ever possess. 
Herbert Spencer is credited with the declaration 
that man is destined to evolve to a point as far 
beyond what he now is as he is now beyond the 
vegetable kingdom. 

In this long evolutionary journey the next 
thing we shall do is to develop the sixth sense. 
Some people have already done so and all are 
approaching it. This dawning sense is called 
clairvoyance. Fair investigation will show that 
the clairvoyant possesses certain powers not com- 


10 


The Sixth Sense. 


nion to the majority of people. This is merely 
the beginning of the development of the sixth 
sense, and probably with the majority of clair¬ 
voyants it goes no further than etheric and lower 
astral sight. In other words, they are able to 
raise the consciousness only to a grade of matter 
a little beyond the grasp of ordinary vision, while 
the properly developed, trained clairvoyant raises 
his consciousness two full planes beyond. 

The higher the consciousness is raised the fur¬ 
ther the horizon of knowledge extends and the 
clairvoyant is able to hand down information 
that appears quite miraculous; but it is perfectly 
natural. If a certain person were born blind and 
had never understood any more about eyesight 
than most people understand about clairvoyance; 
if this person could know how many doorways 
were in a large building only by groping along 
with his hands and thus acquiring the knowledge 
by touch, and another person who could see 
should glance along the block and instantly tell 
the blind man the correct number, that would be 
to the blind man a miracle. Now, when a clair¬ 
voyant sees things at a distance where the physi¬ 
cal eye cannot reach he really does nothing more 
remarkable. When we see a thing we receive 
the vibrations of light. That gives the informa¬ 
tion. When the clairvoyant “ sees ” at a distance 


Value of Conscious Evolution. n 

through what we mistakenly call solid substances 
he receives vibrations of matter so fine that it 
interpenetrates solids as the ether does. 

Every human being must make, and is making, 
this long evolutionary journey from spiritual 
infancy to godlike power and perfection, but 
there are two ways in which it may be done. We 
may, as the vast majority do, accept the process 
of unconscious evolution and submit to nature’s 
whip and spur that continuously urge the 
thoughtless and indifferent forward until they 
finally reach the goal. Or, we may choose con¬ 
scious evolution and work intelligently with 
nature, thus making progress that is compara¬ 
tively of enormous rapidity and at the same time 
avoid much of what Hamlet called the “ slings 
and arrows of outrageous fortune.” 

The degree to which mind can control circum¬ 
stances and dominate matter is far greater than is 
generally believed. Our impressions about matter 
are very illusory. No form of matter is per¬ 
manent. Even the hardest substances are, like 
liquids, constantly evaporating, that is, disinte¬ 
grating, slowly disappearing. Change goes on 
everywhere at every instant, by physical laws in 
the physical body and by astral and mental laws 
in our invisible bodies. We are not the same 
being, physically, mentally or spiritually, any two 


12 The Laws of Soul Growth. 

days m succession. The very soul itself is sub¬ 
ject to this law of change. It may expand and 
shine out through the physical organism resplend¬ 
ent, or it may only faintly glimmer through a 
constantly coarsening body. 

What is this law of soul growth? Through 
adherence to what principle may we reach spirit¬ 
ual illumination? There are certain well estab¬ 
lished facts about the laws of growth that we 
should not overlook when seeking the way for¬ 
ward. Nothing whatever can grow without use, 
without activity. Inaction causes atrophy. Phy¬ 
siologists tell us that if the arm be tied to the 
body so that it cannot be used it will in time 
become so enfeebled that it is of no further ser¬ 
vice. It will wither away. That is nature’s law 
of economy. She never gives life where it is 
useless, where it can not, or will not, be utilized. 
On the other hand, exercise increases power. To 
increase the size and strength of muscles we 
must use them. This is just as true of mental 
and moral faculties as it is of the physical body. 
The only way to make the brain keen and power¬ 
ful is to exercise it by original thinking. One way 
to gain soul powers is to give free play to the 
loftiest aspirations of which we are capable, and 
to do it systematically instead of at random. We 
grow to be like the things we think about. Now, 


The Downward Road. 


13 


the reverse of all this must be equally true. To 
give no thought to higher things, to become com¬ 
pletely absorbed in material affairs, is to stifle the 
soul, to invite spiritual atrophy. 

Turning our attention to nature we shall find 
in the parasite convincing proof of all this. The 
parasite, whether plant or animal, is living evi¬ 
dence that to refuse or neglect to use an organ or 
faculty results in being deprived of it. The 
dodder, says Drummond, has roots like other 
plants, but when it fixes sucker discs on the 
branches of neighboring plants and begins to get 
its food through them, its roots perish. When it 
fails to use them it loses them. He also points 
to the hermit-crab as an illustration of this great 
fact in nature, that disuse means loss, and that to 
shirk responsibility is the road to degeneration. 
The hermit-crab was once equipped with a hard 
shell and with as good means of locomotion as 
other crabs. But instead of courageously follow¬ 
ing the hardy life of other crustaceans it formed 
the bad habit of taking up its residence in the 
cast-off shells of mollusks. This made life easy 
and indolent. But it paid the price of all shirk¬ 
ing. In time it lost four legs, while the shell over 
the vital portion of its body degenerated to a thin 
membrane which leaves it practically helpless 
when it is out of its captured home, or when its 


14 The Conditions of Progress. 

ready-made refuge is crushed. And this is the 
certain result of all shirking of responsibility. 
There may be an apparent temporary gain, but it 
always means greater loss, either immediate or 
remote. So nature punishes inaction with atro¬ 
phy. Whatever is not used finally ceases to be. 
In plain language, apathy, inaction, idleness, use¬ 
lessness, is the road to degeneration. On the 
other hand, aspiration and activity mean growth, 
development, power. 

So we grow, physically, mentally and morally, 
by activity, by exercise of the organs or the facul¬ 
ties or the attributes we desire to possess. It is 
only by the constant exercise of these things that 
we can grow at all. When this great law of 
nature is understood we see at once how it is that 
life is full of trouble; why it is that the whole 
visible world seems to be designed to keep us 
constantly at work physically and mentally, to 
challenge our resourcefulness in improving our 
physical, social and political conditions, to con¬ 
tinually try our patience and to forever test our 
courage. It is the way of development. It is 
the price of progress. 

The universe is a training school for evolving 
intelligence — a vast gymnasium for the develop¬ 
ment of moral fibre. We become mentally clever 
by playing at the game of life. We match our 


We May Be Either Slaves or Masters. 15 

courage against its adversities and acquire fear¬ 
lessness. We try our optimism against its disap¬ 
pointments and learn cheerfulness. We pit our 
patience against its failures and gain persistence. 
We are torn from the pinnacle of ambition by op¬ 
ponents and learn toleration for others. We fall 
from the heights of vanity and pride, and learn to 
be modest and humble. We encounter pain and 
sorrow and learn sympathy with suffering. It is 
only by such experiences that we can grow to 
rounded measure. It is only in an environment 
thus adapted to our spiritual development that we 
can evolve the latent powers within us. 

Such is the nature of the universe in which we 
find ourselves and from it there is no escape. No 
man can avoid life — not even the foolish one 
who, when the difficulties before him appear for 
the moment overwhelming, tries to escape them 
by suicide. A man cannot die. He can only 
choose how he will live. He may either help¬ 
lessly drift through the world suffering from all 
the ills and evils that make so many unhappy or 
he may choose the method of conscious evolution 
that alone makes life truly successful. We may 
be either the suffering slaves of nature or the 
happy masters of her laws. 

Now, all powers possessed by any human 
being, no matter how exalted his position in evo- 


16 All Powers Are Within Us. 

lution, or how sublime his spiritual power, are 
latent in all human beings and can, in time, be 
developed and brought into action. Of course 
there is no magic rule by which the ignoramus can 
instantly become wise or by which a brutal man 
can be at once transformed into a saint. Nature 
takes ages to accomplish a work so great, but 
when a man reaches the point in his evolution 
where he begins to comprehend the purpose of 
life and to evolve the will to put forth his ener¬ 
gies in co-operation with nature his rise to wis¬ 
dom and power may be swift indeed. But this 
transformation from the darkness of ignorance 
to spiritual illumination, from helplessness “ in 
the fell clutch of circumstance ” to power over 
nature, must be brought about by his own efforts 
for it is a process of evolution — of forcing the 
latent to become the active. Therefore one must 
resolve to take oneself in hand for definite and 
systematic self-development. Nobody else can 
do the work for us. Certain moral qualities must 
be gained before there can be spiritual illumina¬ 
tion and genuine wisdom and such qualities, or 
virtues, have to be evolved by the laws under 
which all growth occurs. It is just as impossible 
to acquire a moral quality by reading about its 
desirability as to evolve muscular strength by 
watching the performance of a group of athletes. 


The First Step. 


17 


To gain muscular strength one must take part in 
the physical activities that produce it. He must 
live the athletic life. To win spiritual strength 
and supremacy he must live the spiritual life. 
There is no other way. He must first learn what 
mental and moral qualities are essential, and how 
to gain them, and then set earnestly about the 
work of acquiring them. 

The first thing necessary is to get a clear 
understanding of the fact that the physical body 
is not the self but only a vehicle or instrument 
through which the self is being manifested in the 
visible world. The body is as much your instru¬ 
ment as the hand is, or as your pen is. It is a 
thing which you, the self, use and a clear concep¬ 
tion of this fact — a feeling that this is the fact 
— is the first step toward that absolute control of 
the physical body that lays the foundation for 
success in conscious evolution. When we feel 
that in managing the physical body we are con¬ 
trolling something that is not ourself we are 
fairly started on the right road. 

Now, there are three things that a person must 
possess to be successful in self-development. If 
he has not these three qualifications he will make 
but little progress; but, fortunately, any lacking 
quality can be evolved and if one does not pos¬ 
sess these three necessities his first work is to ere- 


18 The Purpose Served by Desire. 

ate them. These three things are an ardent 
desire, an iron will and an alert intelligence. 
Why are these three qualifications essential to 
success and what purpose do they serve? 

Desire is nature’s motor power — the propul¬ 
sive force that pushes everything forward in its 
evolution. It is desire that stimulates to action. 
Desire drives the animal into the activities that 
evolve its physical body and sharpen its intelli¬ 
gence. If it had no desires it would lie inert 
and perish. But the desires for food, for drink, 
for association with its kind, impel it to action, 
and the result is the evolution of strength, skill 
and intelligence in proportion to the intensity of 
its desires. To gratify these desires it will 
accept battle no matter how great may be the 
odds against it and will unhesitatingly risk life 
itself in the combat. Desire not only induces 
the activity that develops physical strength and 
beauty, but also has its finer effects. Hunger 
compels the animal not only to seek food, but to 
pit its cunning against that of its prey. Driven 
forward by desire it develops, among other quali¬ 
ties, strength, courage, patience, endurance, in¬ 
telligence. 

Desire plays the same role with man at his 
higher stage of evolution. It stimulates him to 
action; and always as his activity satisfies his 


Desires Change With Growth. 19 

original desire a new one replaces the old and 
lures him on to renewed exertion. As a young 
man beginning his business career he desires 
only a comfortable cottage. But when that is 
attained he wants a mansion. He soon tires of 
the mansion and wants a palace. Then he wants 
several — at the seaside, in the city, and on the 
mountains. At first he is satisfied with a horse; 
then he demands an automobile, and finally a 
steam yacht. He sets out as a youth to earn a 
livelihood and welcomes a small salary. But 
the desire for money pushes him into business 
for himself and he works tirelessly for a com¬ 
petence. He feels that a small fortune should 
satisfy anybody and tells his friends that when 
he has accumulated twenty thousand dollars he 
will “ take life easy.” But when he gets it he 
wants five times as much and when that is 
secured he wants to be a millionaire. If he suc¬ 
ceeds in that he then desires to become a multi¬ 
millionaire. 

Whether the desire is for wealth, or for fame, 
or for power, the same result follows — when 
the desire is satisfied a greater one takes its place 
that spurs the ambitious one to still further 
exertion. He grasps the prize he believes to 
contain complete satisfaction only to discover 
that while he was pursuing it desire had grown 


20 


The Real Reward. 


beyond it, and so the goal he would attain is 
always far ahead of him. Thus are we tricked 
and apparently mocked by nature until we finally 
awake to the fact that all the objects of desire— 
the fine raiment, the jewels, the palaces, the 
wealth, the power, and even the fairest fame, 
are but vain and empty things; and that the real 
reward for all our efforts to secure them is not 
these objects at all but the new powers we have 
evolved in getting them; powers that we did not 
before possess and which we should not have 
evolved bu-t for nature’s great propulsive force— 
desire. The man who accumulates a fortune by 
many years of persistent effort in organizing 
and developing a business enterprise, by careful 
planning and deep thinking, may naturally 
enough look upon the fortune he will possess for 
a few years before it passes on to others, as his 
reward. But the truth is that it is a very tran¬ 
sient and perishable and worthless thing com¬ 
pared to the new powers that were unconsciously 
evolved in getting it — powers that will be re¬ 
tained by the man and be brought into use in 
future incarnations. 

Desire, then, plays a most important role in 
human evolution. It awakens, stimulates, pro¬ 
pels. What wind is to the ship, what steam is to 
the locomotive, desire is to the human being. 


How to Transmute Desire. 


21 


It has been written in a great book, “ Kill out 
desire,” and elsewhere it is written, “ Resist not 
evil.” We may find, in similar exalted pro¬ 
nouncements, truths that are very useful to dis¬ 
ciples but which might be confusing and mis¬ 
leading to the man of the world if he attempted 
to literally apply them. Perhaps for the average 
mortal “ kill out desire ” might be interpreted 
u transmute desire.” Without desire man would 
be in a deathlike and dangerous condition — a 
condition in which further progress would be 
impossible. But by transmuting the lower 
desires into the higher he moves steadily forward 
and upward without losing in any degree the 
motive power that urges him forever onward. 

To transmute desire, to continually replace the 
lower with the higher, really is killing desire out 
but it is doing it by the slow and safe evolution¬ 
ary process. As to crushing it suddenly, that is 
simply impossible; but substitution may work 
wonders. Suppose, for example, that a young 
man is a gambler and his parents are much dis¬ 
tressed about it. The common and foolish 
course is to lecture him on the sin of gambling 
and to tearfully urge him to associate only with 
very proper young men who are scarcely robust 
enough to have decided ideas of their own and 
therefore seldom get into trouble. But the 


22 Changing the Lower to the Higher. 

young gambler is not in the least interested in 
that sort of a life, which appears to him to be a 
kind of living death, and such entreaty does not 
move him. His parents would do better by look¬ 
ing more closely into the case. Why is he a 
gambler? He desires money. He seeks excite¬ 
ment. He wants to live in an atmosphere of 
intense life and activity. Very well. These de¬ 
sires are quite right in themselves. It is useless 
to try to crush them. It is nonsense to argue 
that he does not want these things. Clearly 
enough he does want them and that is precisely 
why he gambles. Then do not attempt the im¬ 
possibility of killing the desire but change the 
objects of his desires. Say to him: You 
desire money and a life full of turbulence and 
excitement. Well, you can get all that in a bet¬ 
ter and a legitimate way and have the respect of 
your friends besides. You can go into politics. 
That is a field within the pale of the law and in 
it you can have scope for all the energy and 
activity and intensity of life you long for, with 
all the element of chance which you find so at¬ 
tractive. And when the young man has had his 
fling there and tires of it then something else can 
be attempted. But to try to crush desire and 
curb the outrushing life is both foolish and im¬ 
possible. We can only direct it. 


Any Vice or Fault May be Remedied. 23 

There are, of course, certain gross desires that 
must be gotten rid of by the most direct and least 
objectionable method, and when one really 
desires to be free from a given vice or moral 
weakness and sets earnestly and intelligently 
about it his release is not so difficult as the com¬ 
plete tyranny of most vices would lead one to 
suppose. There is a process by which any of 
us may be free if we will take the trouble to 
patiently put it into practice. This method will 
apply to any desire from which we wish to be 
released. For example, let us take the person 
who has a settled desire for alcoholic stimulants 
but really wishes to be rid of it forever. Many 
people who are thus afflicted to the point where 
they occasionally become intoxicated feel, when 
they recover their normal condition, that no price 
would be too great to pay for freedom from this 
humiliating habit. As a rule such a man tries to 
close his eyes to his shame and forget it, prom¬ 
ising himself that he will be stronger when the 
temptation again assails him. But it is just this 
putting it aside, this casting it out of his mind, 
that perpetuates his weakness. He instinctively 
shrinks from dwelling upon the thought of 
whither he is drifting. So he puts the unpleas¬ 
ant subject aside altogether and when the inner 
desire asserts itself again he finds himself pre- 


24 


The Method of Escape. 


cisely as helpless as before. 

Now, his certain method of escape from this 
tyranny of desire is to turn his mind resolutely to 
an examination of the whole question. Let him 
look the facts in the face, however humiliating 
they may be. He should call his imagination to 
his assistance. It should be used to picture to 
himself his future if he does not succeed in 
breaking up the unfortunate slavery to the desire 
nature. He should think of the fact that as he 
grows older the situation grows worse. He 
should picture himself as the helpless, repulsive 
sot, with feeble body and weakening mind, and 
reflect upon the humiliation he must endure, the 
poverty he must face, and the physical and men¬ 
tal pain he must bear in the future if he now 
fails to break the desire ties that bind him. This 
creates in him a feeling of repulsion toward the 
cause of it all; and if he continues to think daily 
upon this hideous picture of what he is slowly 
drifting toward — if he daily regards it all with 
a feeling of slight repulsion — then even within 
a month or two he will find that his desire for 
drink is slowly fading out. 

The physical body is a veritable tyrant. Few 
of us realize to what extent we yield to its 
demand even when we know that unpleasant or 
injurious results will follow. All degrees of 


Hozv We Should Use Desire. 25 

excesses in gratifying the physical appetites are 
cases in evidence. One who would arouse the 
will and subjugate the body should give atten¬ 
tion first to the lesser of these evils which afflict 
him, gradually cutting off the little indulgences. 
This paves the way to greater conquests. 

This is as true of all other desires that enslave 
us. The desire for alcoholic stimulants merely 
illustrates the principle involved. Any desire 
from which one wishes to be free may be escaped 
by the same method. But one who would free 
himself from the desire-nature should not make 
the mistake of creating a feeling of intense hos¬ 
tility toward the thing he seeks to escape; for 
hatred is also a tie. He should merely reach a 
position of complete indifference. He should 
think of it not with settled hostility, but with 
repulsion; and if he does that daily, mentally 
dwelling upon the pain and humiliation it causes, 
he will find the ties loosening, the desire weaken¬ 
ing. 

Desire is a force that may be beneficial or 
detrimental, according to its use. As we may 
eradicate a desire so may we create a desire. 
How, then, may one who seeks the highest self¬ 
development use desire, this propulsive force of 
nature, to help himself forward? He should 
desire spiritual progress most earnestly, for with- 


26 


Creating Right Desires. 


out such desire he cannot succeed. Therefore if 
the aspirant does not have the ardent desire for 
spiritual illumination he must create it. To 
accomplish this let him again call imagination to 
his assistance. Let him picture himself as hav¬ 
ing his power for usefulness many times multi¬ 
plied by occult development. He should think of 
himself as possessing the inner sight that enables 
him to understand the difficulties of others and to 
comprehend their sorrows. He should daily think 
of the fact that this would so broaden and 
quicken his sympathies that he would be enor¬ 
mously more useful in the world than he can now 
possibly be and that he could become a source of 
happiness to thousands. Let him reflect that as 
he gets farther along in occult development and in 
unselfishness and spirituality he may have the 
inestimable privilege of coming into contact with 
some of the exalted intelligences that watch over 
and assist the struggling aspirants on their 
upward way. He should daily recall the fact that 
he is now moving forward toward a freer, richer, 
more joyous life than he has yet known and that 
every effort brings him nearer to its realization. 
Thus dwelling on the subject in its various aspects 
he creates the ardent desire that serves to propel 
him forward. 

If he feels that these things make an ideal a 


Some Dangerous Ground. 




little too high for him at present he may reach 
that point by degrees. He may at first dwell in 
thought upon the personal satisfaction that would 
come from the possession of astral sight. Let 
him reflect upon what it would mean to be con¬ 
scious of the invisible world; to have all its won¬ 
ders laid open before him; to be able to con¬ 
sciously meet the so-called dead, including his 
own friends and relatives; to be able to have the 
positive personal proof that we survive the death 
of the physical body; to be able to become one of 
the “ invisible helpers ” of the world; to have 
available the priceless advantages of the astral 
region and to bring the consciousness of all this 
into the physical life. That is certainly something 
worth all the time and effort required to attain it. 
Thus thinking constantly of the widened life and 
added powers it would confer, the desire to move 
forward in self-development will be greatly stim¬ 
ulated. But the student should always keep it in 
mind that the real purpose of acquiring new pow¬ 
ers is to increase his capacity for service to the 
race, and that he who falls short of that ideal 
walks upon dangerous ground. 

The second requisite is a firm will. It should 
not be forgotten that an unusual and difficult 
thing is being attempted in which a person of 
weak will cannot possibly hope to succeed. Even 


28 


The Power of the Will. 


in the ordinary life of the world considerable will 
power is essential to success. To succeed in busi¬ 
ness, to become expert in a profession, or to com¬ 
pletely master an art, requires strong will, deter¬ 
mination, perseverance. The difficulties in occult 
development are still greater and, while it is true 
that any degree of effort is well worth while, the 
weaklings will not go far. Only those with the 
indomitable will that knows neither surrender nor 
compromise may hope for a large measure of 
success. Once the will is thoroughly aroused 
and brought into action every hindrance in the 
way will be swept aside. 

“ The human will, that force unseen, 

The offspring of a deathless soul, 

Can hew a way to any goal 
Tho’ walls of granite intervene. 

* * * * 

“Be not impatient of delay, 

But wait as one who understands. 

When spirit rises and commands 
The gods are ready to obey.” 

Mighty, indeed, is this force when aroused. 
But a person may be easily deceived about his 
will. He is likely to think that his will is much 
stronger than it really is. He may say to himself, 
“ Oh, yes, I would go through anything for the 


How to Test the Will. 


29 


sake of the higher life and spiritual illumination.” 
But that is no guarantee that after a few months 
of monotonous work he may not abandon it unless 
he adopts the wise plan of strengthening his will 
as he moves forward. Let him begin this by 
testing his present strength of will, but let him 
not be discouraged by the result. He should 
remember that whatever he lacks in will power 
he can evolve by proper effort. 

To find out whether he really has much 
strength of will a person may begin to observe to 
what extent he permits his daily plans to be 
modified, or entirely changed, by the things that 
run counter to his will. Does he hold steadfastly 
to his purpose or does he weakly surrender to 
small obstacles? Many people who would doubt¬ 
less say they have average will power by no 
means have sufficient resolution to even begin the 
day as they have planned it. The evening before 
they decide that they will rise at 6 o’clock the 
next morning. They know there are certain 
excellent reasons why they should do so and they 
retire with the matter fully decided. It is posi¬ 
tively settled that at exactly 6 o’clock the day’s 
program shall begin. But when the clock strikes 
that hour the next morning they feel strongly 
disinclined to obey the summons. It involves 
some bodily discomfort to rise at that moment 


jo The Necessity of Compulsion. 

and they conclude that, after all, perhaps they 
were a bit hasty the evening before in fixing 
upon that hour! Whereupon they reconsider the 
matter and make it 6:30; and when that time 
arrives they generously extend it to 7 o’clock. 
The hour, of course, is unimportant. But what¬ 
ever may have been the hour that was previously 
determined upon the keeping of that determina¬ 
tion is of the greatest importance and the failure 
to put the resolution into effect is evidence of the 
possession of a weak will. 

Now all this proves that such persons have 
very little real will power, for they permit the 
desire for trifling bodily comfort to set their 
plans aside. Such persons are still slaves to the 
physical body and weakly permit it to upset care¬ 
fully outlined programs. They are not yet ready 
for good work in occult development, where real 
success can come only to those who have stead¬ 
fast strength of purpose. 

People who fail to assert the will and bring the 
body into complete subjection probably little real¬ 
ize what a price they pay for a trifling physical 
pleasure; for until we voluntarily take the right 
course we have not escaped the evolutionary 
necessity of compulsion and may reasonably 
expect sooner or later to be thrown into an en¬ 
vironment that will apply the stimulus we still 


By Co-operation We Escape the Sting. 31 

need to arouse the will. It may be unpleasant 
while it is occurring, but what better fortune 
could befall an indolent man than to find him¬ 
self in circumstances where his poverty or other 
necessity compels him to subordinate bodily com¬ 
fort to the reign of the will? Nature provides 
the lessons we require. We may wisely co-oper¬ 
ate with her and thus escape the sting. But 
so long as we need the lesson we may be quite 
sure that it awaits us. 

All the business activities of the world are 
developing the will. Through them will and 
desire work together in evolving latent powers. 
Desire becomes will power. A man desires 
wealth and the desire plunges him into business 
activities and stimulates the will by which he 
overcomes all the difficulties that lie in his way. 
Ardent desire for an education arouses the will 
of the student and the awakened will triumphs 
over poverty and all other barriers between him 
and the coveted diploma. If a man stands at a 
lower point in evolution where he has not the 
ambition for intellectual culture nor for fame 
nor for wealth, but only the desire for shelter and 
food, still that primitive desire forces him into 
action; and while his will power will be evolved 
only in proportion to the strength of the desire 
that prompts him, it must nevertheless grow. 


32 How to Strengthen the Will. 

Instead of rising at a certain hour because the 
will decrees it he may rise only because he knows 
his livelihood depends upon it. But he is learn¬ 
ing the same lesson — the overcoming of the 
inertia of the physical body — albeit it is com¬ 
pulsory instead of voluntary. But all this is 
unconscious evolution. It is the long, slow, 
painful process. It is the only way possible for 
those who are not wise enough to co-operate with 
nature in her evolutionary work and thus rise 
above the necessity of compulsion. 

How, then, may we develop the will when it is 
so weak that we are still the slaves of nature 
instead of the masters of destiny? Will power, 
like any other faculty, may be cultivated and 
made strong. To do this one may plan in 
advance what he will do under certain circum¬ 
stances and then carry out the program with¬ 
out evasion or hesitation when the time arrives. 
His forethought will enable him to do this 
if he does not undertake things too difficult 
at first. Let him resolve to do at a certain hour 
some small thing which, in the ordinary course 
of his duties, he sees is necessary but unpleasant; 
and then firmly resolve in advance that exactly 
at the appointed time he will do it. Thus forti¬ 
fied before the trial comes he will probably go 
successfully through with it. After once decid- 


Death in a Living Body. 


33 


mg upon the time there should be no post¬ 
ponement and not an instant’s delay when the 
moment arrives. 

One of the things we have to learn is to over¬ 
come the inertia of the physical body and many 
people are not really awake on the physical plane 
because they have not done so. To a certain 
extent they are “ dead ” within the physical 
body for it is a condition much nearer death than 
that supposed death of one who no longer has 
the physical body. The inert mass of physical 
matter in which such people are functioning 
leaves them only half alive until they have 
aroused themselves from its domination. They 
remind one of the lines: 

“ Life is a mystery, death is a doubt, 

And some folks are dead 
While they’re walking about!” 

This inertia of the physical body that so often 
renders people nearly useless is very largely a 
matter of habit and can be overcome to a sur¬ 
prising degree by simply using a little will¬ 
power. Everybody is familiar with the fact that 
it is sometimes much easier to think and act than 
at other times. But perhaps it is not so well 
known that the dull periods can invariably be 
overcome by an effort of the will and the physi- 


34 From Stupidity to Alertness, 

cal body be made to do its proper work. An 
actor or lecturer after months of continuous 
work may find the brain and body growing tired 
and dull. He may feel when going before his 
audience that he has not an idea nor the wit to 
express it were someone else to furnish it. Yet 
by an effort of the will he can quickly overcome 
the condition and change from stupidity to men¬ 
tal alertness and intensity of thought. The self 
is never tired. It is only the physical body that 
grows weary. It is true that it has its limitations 
and must not be overtaxed and driven beyond 
endurance as a tired horse is sometimes cruelly 
urged forward with whip and spur. Judgment 
must always be used in determining one’s capacity 
for work. But that which is to be done should 
never be done draggingly, with the inertia of the 
physical body marring the work. We should be 
fully awake instead of “ dead ” while we “ are 
walking about.” If a person resolves to be the 
master of the body he may soon acquire the 
power to arouse it to activity and alertness dur¬ 
ing all his waking hours, very much as one may 
acquire the habit of keen observation and be 
conscious of what is occurring in his vicinity in¬ 
stead of being carelessly unconscious of the 
major portion of what is going on immediately 
about him. The difference between people, in 


35 


Missing the Purpose of Life. 

the degree to which they are awake and alive 
in the physical body, is enormous. One person 
will walk along a street seeing almost nothing 
and not knowing that he has passed an intimate 
friend without speaking. Another will walk 
through the same street, be conscious of its mul¬ 
tiplicity of activities, see every person and animal 
along the way, and miss no lesson to be learned 
nor chance to be helpful. 

This matter of giving attention to the things 
that may properly engage the mind, and of using 
the will to arouse and control it, is of very great 
importance. Is it not what we call “ paying at¬ 
tention ” that makes the connection between the 
ego and the objective world? Giving attention 
is a process of consciousness. The person who 
fails in attention misses the purpose of life and 
throws away valuable time and opportunity. To 
give attention is to be alive and awake and in a 
condition to make the most of limited physical 
life. Yet many people cannot give sustained 
attention to an ordinary conversation nor direct 
the mind with sufficient precision to state a sim¬ 
ple fact without wandering aimlessly about in the 
effort, bringing in various incidental matters un¬ 
til the original subject, instead of being made 
clear, is obscured in a maze of unimportant de¬ 
tails or lost sight of altogether. 


36 A Subtle Pozver of Consciousness. 

Such habits of mind should be put resolutely 
aside by one who would hasten self-development. 
The attention should be fixed deliberately upon 
the subject in hand, whatever it may be, and 
nothing should be permitted to break the con¬ 
nection between that and the mind. Whether it 
is a conversation or a book, or a manual task, or 
a problem being silently worked out intellectually, 
it should have undivided attention until the mind 
is ready for something else. 

Perhaps few of us give to any subject the close 
attention which alone can prove its own effective¬ 
ness and demonstrate the fact that there goes 
with such steadily sustained attention a subtle 
power of extended, or accentuated, consciousness. 
When ten minutes is given to a certain subject 
and other thoughts are constantly intruding, so 
that when the ten minutes have passed only five 
minutes have actually been devoted to the subject, 
the result is by no means a half of what would 
have been accomplished had the whole of the ten 
minutes been given to uninterrupted attention. 
The time-thus spent in wavering attention is 
practically without effect. The connection be¬ 
tween mind and subject has not been complete. 
Mind and subject were, so to say, out of focus. 
Attention must be sustained to the point where 
it becomes concentration. The mind must be 


Concentration Produces Results. 37 

used as a sun-glass can be used. Hold the glass 
over a sheet of paper, out of focus, for an hour 
and nothing will happen. A yellow circle of 
light falls on the paper and that is all. But bring 
it into perfect focus, concentrating the rays to the 
finest possible point, and the paper turns brown 
and finally bursts into the fire that will consume 
it. They are the same rays that were previously 
ineffective. Concentration produced results. 

The mind must be brought under such com¬ 
plete control of the will that it can be manipu¬ 
lated like a search-light, turned in this direction 
or that, or flung full upon some obscure subject 
and held steadily there till it illuminates every de¬ 
tail of it, as the search-light sends a dazzling ray 
through space and shows every rock and tree on 
a hillside far away through the darkness of the 
night. 

The third necessity is keen intelligence. The 
force of desire, directed by the will, must be 
supplemented by an alert mind. There is a popu¬ 
lar notion that good motives are sufficient in 
themselves and that when one has the desire to 
attain spiritual illumination, plus the will to 
achieve, nothing more is needed but purity of pur¬ 
pose. But this is a misconception. It is true 
that the mystic makes devotion the vital thing in 
his spiritual growth; and it is also true that the 


38 Why Knowledge is Necessary. 

three paths of action, knowledge and devotion 
blend and become one at a higher stage. But 
while there are methods of development in which 
intellect is not at first made a chief factor it can 
by no means be ignored in the long-run; nor are 
we now considering those methods. A good in¬ 
tellect, therefore, is a necessary part of the equip¬ 
ment. 

Good motives play a most important part, in¬ 
deed, in occult progress. They safeguard the 
aspirant on his upward way. Without pure 
motives, without a large measure of unselfish¬ 
ness, the greatest dangers would encompass him. 
But good motives cannot take the place of good 
sense and relieve him of the necessity of think¬ 
ing. He must develop judgment and discrimina¬ 
tion. There are things he must know, and he 
must use his knowledge, or difficulties will follow 
no matter how noble may be his motives. Sup¬ 
pose, for illustration, that two men set out upon 
a dark night to cross a wild and rugged piece of 
ground — one with bad motives and the other 
with good. One is going out to rob a house and, 
if need be, to kill anybody who might try to in¬ 
terfere with his plans. His motives are very bad 
but he has perfect knowledge of the dangerous 
ground he is to cross and he will therefore travel 
over it in safety. The other man has the best of 


How to Build Up the Intellect. 39 

motives. He is going to spend the night with a 
sick and helpless neighbor. But he has no knowl¬ 
edge of the rough and treacherous ground he 
must cross in the darkness and his good motives 
will not insure him against stumbling over the 
stones or falling into a ditch and breaking his 
arm. Good motives are not enough. We must 
know! Progress in occultism is impossible with¬ 
out knowledge. 

But how is a keen, alert intelligence to be ac¬ 
quired if we do not possess it? Like any other 
latent faculty or power it may be evolved. As 
the physical strength may be steadily increased 
by constant exercise of the muscles so mind may 
increase in power by systematic work. It should 
be exercised in original thinking. A stated 
period, if only a quarter of an hour daily, can 
be set aside for the purpose. A book on a seri¬ 
ous subject will furnish material but the too com¬ 
mon method of reading, of following the author 
lazily and accepting whatever he sets forth as a 
matter of course, is of little value. One must 
read with discrimination, receiving the ideas of¬ 
fered as a juryman would receive testimony from 
a witness, considering it from every possible 
viewpoint, examining it in the light of known 
facts, turning it over in the mind, weighing it 
thoughtfully, and accepting or rejecting according 


40 The Use of the Imagination. 

to its reasonableness or its lack of reason. In 
such mental work for intellectual growth each 
paragraph can be considered by itself and only 
a small portion of the time should be given to 
the reading while the remainder is devoted to 
pondering over what has been read. Of course 
a specific study is an advantage and perhaps 
nothing is better than to study occultism, think¬ 
ing deeply upon the problems of human evolu¬ 
tion. 

Another method that goes admirably with such 
work is the close observation and study of all the 
life in manifestation about us. We should try to 
comprehend people, to observe and understand 
them. Every word, act and facial expression has 
its meaning to be caught and interpreted. All 
this will not only sharpen the wits but also 
strengthen human sympathy for it enables us the 
better to know the difficulties and sorrows of 
others. If such practices are followed faithfully 
day by day the growth will be steady. 

Still another useful practice is to exercise the 
imagination, the art of creating mental pictures 
with no physical object present. The face of an 
absent friend can be called up in the mind and 
reproduced in every detail — the color of the eyes 
and hair, the various moods and expressions. Or 
one’s childhood home can be recalled and the 


4i 


The Importance of Meditation. 

imagination made to reconstruct it. The house 
being complete the landscape can be reproduced, 
with the hills, trees and roads. Repeated prac¬ 
tice at “ seeing mentally ” is of the greatest value 
in occult development. 

While the aspirant is thus working to improve 
the three essential qualifications of desire, will 
and intelligence — to intensify his desire to pos¬ 
sess powers for the helping of others, to 
strengthen the will to get such powers, and to 
steadily improve the intellect — he should also 
be giving most earnest attention to meditation, 
for it is through this practice that the most re¬ 
markable results may be produced in the trans¬ 
formation of his bodies, visible and invisible, 
through which the ego manifests itself in the 
physical world. In the degree that these are 
organized and made sensitive and responsive they 
cease to be limitations of consciousness. Such 
sensitiveness and responsiveness may be brought 
about by meditation, together with proper atten¬ 
tion to the purification of the physical and astral 
bodies; for purity and sensitiveness go together. 

Meditation is a subject so very important to 
the aspirant that specific instructions should guide 
him. The average person, used to the turbulent 
life of occidental civilization, will find it a suffi¬ 
ciently difficult matter to control the mind, and to 


42 


How to Meditate. 


finally acquire the power to direct it as he desires, 
even with all the conditions in his favor. Now, 
there are certain conditions under which he can 
succeed much more readily than under others. A 
human being is the universe in epitome and upon 
that fact rests the remarkable information which 
the skillful astrologer can furnish about the per¬ 
sonality, or the competent palmist can deduce 
from the hand. The law of correspondences in 
nature is as illuminating as it is profound and to 
understand it even in a limited way and take ad¬ 
vantage of it is truly enough “ hitching our 
wagon to a star.” The first thing, then, about 
meditation is to know that the serene hours of 
morning are the most favorable of the twenty- 
four for this purpose. The serenity of nature is 
then reflected in each person to the highest point 
that is possible to that individual. The second 
fact in importance is that regularity has a magic 
of its own and that the hour should be the same 
each morning. To be alone in surroundings as 
quiet as possible is another essential. The out¬ 
side world and all its activities should be shut 
out from the physical senses. The most desirable 
moment for meditation is soon after awakening 
in the morning. Before turning the mind to any 
of the business affairs of the day let the aspirant 
sit calmly down and meditate upon any whole¬ 
some thought, like patience, courage or compas¬ 
sion, keeping the mind steadily upon the subject 
for at least five minutes, and persist in this men¬ 
tal control until he can do that without a single 
other subject forcing itself upon his attention. 
After complete success has been achieved for 


What Meditation Does For Us. 43 

five minutes each morning the time can be ex¬ 
tended to ten minutes, then to fifteen minutes 
and, in good season, to half an hour. If this 
morning meditation can be carried on in a room 
used for no other purpose it will be the more 
fortunate but if that is impracticable then the 
sleeping-room will answer very well. 

Two most important things are being accom¬ 
plished by such meditation. First, we are get¬ 
ting control of the mind and learning to direct 
it where and how we choose; and, second, we 
are attracting and building into the bodies we 
possess certain grades of imponderable matter 
that will make thinking and acting along these 
lines easier and easier for us until they are estab¬ 
lished habits and we actually become in daily life 
patient, courageous and compassionate. What¬ 
ever qualities or virtues we desire to possess may 
be gained through the art of meditation and the 
effort to live up to the ideal dwelt upon daily 
by the mind. 

While it is absolutely true that any human 
being can make of himself that which he desires 
to be — can literally raise himself to any ideal 
he is capable of conceiving — it must not be sup¬ 
posed that it can be done in a short time and by 
intermittent effort. We sometimes hear it said 
that all we need do is to realize that all power 
is within us, when, presto! we are the thing we 
would be! It is quite true that we must realize 
their existence before we can call the latent pow¬ 
ers into expression; but the work of arousing 
the latent into the active is a process of growth, 
of actual evolutionary change. The physical 


44 Not Miracle But Quickened Growth. 

body as it is now is not sensitive enough to re¬ 
spond to subtle vibrations. Its brain is not cap¬ 
able of receiving and registering the delicate 
vibrations sent outward by the ego, and the task 
of changing it so that it can do so is not a trifling 
or easy one. But every effort produces its effect 
and to the persistent and patient devotee of self¬ 
development the final result is certain. But it is 
not a matter of miraculous accomplishment. It 
is a process of inner growth. There are, it is 
quite true, cases in which people who have en¬ 
tered upon this method of self-development have, 
in a short time, attained spiritual illumination, 
becoming fully conscious of the invisible world 
and its inhabitants while awake in the physical 
body; extending the horizon of consciousness to 
include both worlds, and coming into possession 
of the higher clairvoyance that enables, one to 
trace past causes and modify impending effects. 
But such people are those who have given so 
much attention to self-development in past lives 
that they have now but little more to do in order 
to come into full possession of occult powers. 
Sometimes it requires little' more than the turn¬ 
ing of their attention to the matter. Becoming 
a member of some occult organization or seri¬ 
ously taking up theosophical studies may easily 
enough be the final step that leads to the open¬ 
ing of the inner sight. 

But how can one know to what point he may 
have advanced in the past and where he now 
stands? How may we know whether there is 
but a little work ahead or a great deal? We can¬ 
not know; nor is it important to know. The per- 


Everybody Will Succeed in Time. 45 

son who should take up the task merely because 
he thinks there is little to do would certainly fail. 
The very fact that he would not venture upon 
the undertaking if he thought the task a difficult 
one is evidence that he has not the qualifications 
necessary for the success of the occult student. 
Unless he is filled with a longing to possess 
greater power to be used in the service of human¬ 
ity, and fired with an enthusiasm that would 
hesitate at no difficulties, he has not yet reached 
the point in his evolution where he awaits only 
the final steps that will make him a disciple. But 
even the absence of the keen desire for spiritual 
progress, that is the best evidence of the probabil¬ 
ity of success, should not deter anybody from 
entering upon the systematic study of theosophy 
and devoting to it all the time and energy he can; 
nor should the thought that many years might 
pass without producing any very remarkable re¬ 
sults lead him to conclude that the undertaking 
would not be a profitable one. The time will 
come with each human being when he will step 
out of the great throng that drifts with the tide 
and enter upon the course of conscious evolution, 
assisting nature instead of ignoring her beneficent 
plan; and since it is but a question of time the 
sooner a beginning is made the better for the 
sooner will suffering cease. 

There should be a word of warning about the 
folly of trying to reach spiritual illumination by 
artificial methods. Astral sight is sometimes 
quickly developed by crystal gazing and also by 
a certain regulation of the breathing. For two 
reasons such methods should be avoided. One 


46 Unconsciously Receiving Instruction. 

is that any powers thus gained can not be perma¬ 
nent, and the other is that they may be more or 
less dangerous. Many people have made physical 
wrecks of themselves by some of these methods. 

There are those who advertise to quickly teach 
clairvoyance, for a consideration, as though spiri¬ 
tual powers could really be conferred instead of 
evolved! It is true that efforts toward the evolu¬ 
tion of such powers may be enormously aided by 
teachers, but such instruction can not be bought, 
and the offer to furnish it for money is the best 
evidence of its worthlessness. Those who teach 
this ancient wisdom select their own pupils from 
the morally fit, and tuition can be paid only in 
devotion to truth and service to humanity. That 
is the only road that leads to instruction worth 
having, and until the aspirant is firmly upon that 
sound moral ground he is much better off without 
powers, the selfish use of which would lead to 
certain disaster. 

But how shall the pupil find the teacher? He 
need not find him, at first, so far as the limited 
consciousness is concerned. Long before he 
knows anything of it in his waking hours he may 
be receiving instruction while he is out of the 
physicial body during the hours of sleep. The 
teacher finds the pupil long before the pupil sus¬ 
pects that the teacher exists; and since it is the 
pupil who has the limited consciousness it is quite 
natural that it should be so. Thus it is inevitable 
that all who enter upon the way that leads to 
spiritual illumination must long remain ignorant 
of the fact that any teachers are interested in 
them or that anybody is giving the slightest atten- 


How the Great Teacher is Found. 47 

tion to them. Naturally enough one cannot know 
until the moment arrives when his brain has be¬ 
come sufficiently sensitive to retain a memory of 
at least a fragment of his superphysical experi¬ 
ences. 

But what leads to the selection of the pupil? 
His earnestness, his unselfishness, his devotion, 
his spiritual aspirations. There is an old occult 
maxim to the effect that when the pupil is ready 
the Master is waiting. They have need of many 
more than are ready to be taught. Those who 
lead and enlighten watch eagerly for all who will 
qualify themselves to enter upon the upward way. 
Every human being gets exactly what he fits 
himself to receive. He cannot possibly be over¬ 
looked. By his spiritual aspiration each lights 
the lamp in the window of his soul and to the 
watchers from the heights that light against the 
background of the overwhelming materiality of 
our times must be as the sun in a cloudless sky. 

Other things come later but these simpler 
things, to realize the necessity for conscious evo¬ 
lution, to comprehend the method of soul devel¬ 
opment, to take full control of the mind and the 
physical body, to resolutely curb the grosser de¬ 
sires and to give free rein to the higher aspira¬ 
tions, are the first infant steps in the self-devel¬ 
opment that leads to illumination. Then we be¬ 
gin to discover that this very desire for greater 
spiritual power is generating a force that carries 
us forward and upward. We soon begin to 
observe actual progress. The brain becomes 
clearer, the intellect keener. Our sphere of influ¬ 
ence grows wider, our friendships become 


48 Through Storm to Peace. 

warmer. Aspiration lifts us into a new and radi¬ 
ant life, and the wondrous powers of the soul 
begin to become a conscious possession. And to 
this soul growth there is no limit. The aspirant 
will go on and on in this life and others with an 
ever-extending horizon of consciousness until he 
has the mental grasp of a Plato, the vivid imag¬ 
ination of a Dante, the intuitive perception of a 
Shakespeare. It is not by the outward acquire¬ 
ment of facts that such men become wise and 
great. It is by developing the soul from within 
until it illuminates the brain with that flood of 
light called genius. 

And when, through the strife and storm, we 
finally reach the tranquility of the inner peace we 
shall comprehend the great fact that life really 
is joy when lived in the possession of spiritual 
power and in perfect harmony with the laws of 
the universe. With even these first steps in occult 
achievement the aspirant enters upon a higher 
and more satisfactory life than he has ever 
known. Literally he becomes a new man. 
Gradually the old desires and impulses fade away 
and new and nobler aspirations take their place. 
He has learned obedience to law only to find that 
obedience was the road to conquest. He has 
risen above the gross and senuous by the power 
of conscious evolution; and, looking back upon 
what he has been with neither regret nor apology, 
he comprehends those significant words of Ten¬ 
nyson : 

“I hold it true with him who sings: 

On stepping-stones of their dead selves 

Men rise to higher things.” 











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